Miami SF: Andy Murray vs Richard Gasquet

Richard Gasquet upset Tomas Berdych 6-3 6-3 to contest a SF with World No 2 Andy Murray who defeated Marin Cilic of Croatia earlier in the day. The winner will progress to Sunday's final where they will face either David Ferrer or tournament hot shot Tommy Haas to lift the trophy.

Andy has never beaten Gasquet on hard courts. Andy has never beaten Gasquet in a MS1000, with Richard holding 3 wins over him.

Lots of motivation for Andy here, in abolishing both these facts.

Since 2007, and let's face it, anything before then is pretty much irrelevant now as that was before Murray overtook Gasquet in the rankings, Murray holds a 3-1 H2H, with the one defeat coming on the clay last year.

Basically there's really very little to go on. Their entire H2H was on clay, grass or before 2008. Since then they are 1-1 on clay, and Murray is 2-0 on grass.

Really not worth paying any attention to the H2H. The main thing to take from is that Gasquet often starts stronger then falls apart once Murray rallies. At the end of the day Murray is perfectly capable of beating Gasquet if he plays to a level that we know he can. If he doesn't raise his game, Gasquet will probably win.

Andy did what he had to do to beat Cilic, and his earlier opponent, but there's room for improvement. If Gasquet replicates his superb performance against Berdych, then Andy won't get away with wallowing around with a slow start. He needs to bring in his A game from the off, keep his focus better and not let himself be distracted by things going on around the court. Fortunately he seems to benefit from the livelier crowds at evening matches, so hopefully we'll see an entertaining match, with Andy winning it.